After the birthday ceremony, Jiang Li's Fang Fei Garden resumed it's peaceful days.
Even though facts proved that Jiang Li was accused wrongly in the matter of the gems in the head ornament, not one person came to appease her. Tong'er secretly heard from outside, Old Madam Jiang called Ji Shuran to the Phoenix Hall in the evening and reprimanded her harshly for a time. Hearing that Jiang You Yao's birthday ceremony was managed by Ji Shuran, in the end having this kind of matter came out, it was making the guests see a joke and leting the Jiang family lose its face.
"This time, Ji shi's housekeeping ability is highly doubted by the people." Tong'er was extremely pleased as she mentioned this.
Jiang Li smiled. Old Madam Jiang reprimanded Ji Shuran probably not because Ji Shuran messed up the birthday ceremony. In any case, Old Madam Jiang was also a person who had been immersed in the backyard struggle. How could she not understand the twists and turns behind the door? Moreover, this time, Ji Shuran's method was really not brilliant. Although Old Madam Jiang wasn't particularly fond of Jiang second miss, in the end, using this matter to lash out at Ji Shuran, she could reluctantly be regarded as being impartial.
However, even if Jiang Li's execution this time saved herself, it had exposed the unpeaceful backyard of Jiang residence to outsiders. To some extent, it made the people in the residence angry, and they needed to take it out on somebody. Such as the present, treating Jiang Li coldly was the Jiang family's punishment for her.
However, Jiang Li didn't care.
Tong'er smiled: "The three new servant girls are outside. Does Miss want them to come in now?"
Xiang Qiao and Yun Shuang were already taken away. Jiang Li only had one servant girl, Tong'er. Three girls were picked and brought in by an older female servant. This way, in addition to Tong'er, there were two first-class servant girls, two-second class servant girls and another one to sweep and clean the outer courtyard, which was appropriate.
"Let them enter." said Jiang Li.
Three servant girls came into the room. The two-second class servant girls were called Ming Yue and Qing Feng and they were of similar age with Tong'er. They seemed to be lively and clever, they paid respect to Jiang Li neatly, in a clear voice. They had never served in the Jiang residence before.
There was still a first class servant girl called Bai Xue, her age was a bit bigger than Tong'er, and was not as lively as the other two servant girls. Even though she was called Bai Xue, her skin was dark and she had a sturdy figure. Wearing Jiang residence's specially sewn apricot red attire, it was somewhat incompatible and laughable.
Tong'er sized Bai Xue up and down, feeling strange in her heart. Generally speaking, the personal servant girls of a young miss reflected the miss's face. Apart from their character and capability, their appearance must be smart, delicate and pretty. This Bai Xue, no matter what her skills were, with just her appearance, if put in other people's residence she would have no chance of being a first-class servant girl in her lifetime.
When the older female servant chose, she brought up Bai Xue, saying that she was strong and could sweep the outer courtyard. Anyway Jiang Li didn't have much of a plan. But in the end, how did she turn into a first-class servant?
The older female servant also confirmed with Jiang Li over and over again. She probably thought Jiang Li didn't understand this principle. However, Jiang Li was very stubborn. Tong'er saw Bai Xue and couldn't figure out what was special about her.
Jiang Li spoke a few simple words with the three servant girls. Then Qing Feng and Ming Yue immediately went out to work while Bai Xue was left inside the room. Jiang Li looked at her and smiled: "I heard that your hometown is in Zao Hua Village?"
Bai Xue, who was originally standing very cautiously, heard Jiang Li mentioned her hometown and relaxed a little. She replied: "Yes."
"I used to know a servant girl who was also from Zao Hua Village." Jiang Li smiled.
In Bai Xue's family record book, it was written that she came from the not-so-distant Zao Hua Village. She had two elder brothers and one younger sister in the family. Her parents were both farmers and had 1.3 mu of land. Bai Xue had been following his parents in farming since young, that's how she had become strong and dark. But the family had a lot of people. After her elder brothers got married and had children, their life became more difficult. In order to get more money to feed their mouths, Bai Xue went to Yanjing to be a servant girl.
Such a servant like Bai Xue, the wealthy families in Yanjing didn't put her in the eye and disliked her for not being good looking. The elder female servant from the Jiang residence also brought her due to her strength so she could do heavy manual labor. Who knew, Jiang Li picked Bai Xue as a first-class servant girl against reason. Who knew if it was because Bai Xue's luck was good.
Although Baixue was new to being a servant girl, she was aware that a first-class servant girl's and a sweeping servant girl's monthly silvers were completely different. She was grateful towards Jiang Li who had selected her, however, she had also heard the many rumors surrounding Jiang second miss before her arrival. At first, she thought the person to be a monster, unexpectedly she was so amiable and cared about her hometown. She secretly thought, sure enough, rumors are not to be trusted. It was all those people talking rubbish and distorting the truth.
Bai Xue said: "Which servant is Miss familiar with and what's her surname? Perhaps this servant knows."
"She's called Haitang." Jiang Li smiled and said: "That servant girl should now be about 20 years old, there are two younger brothers in her home. The family resides beside a sago shop in Zao Hua village. Haitang is thin and tall, clean and white, she is extremely good looking."
Tong'er listened by the side in confusion. The servant girl that Jiang Li was familiar with, she should have recognized her too. But she had never heard of a servant girl called Haitang ah? Did she come from Jiang residence too?
Bai Xue thought for a long time then scratched her head and smilingly said: "There's no collection in this servant's memory of this person. Saying that Zao Hua village is big, it isn't that big. Saying that it's small, it's not that small. However, if Miss wants to ask around for news of that Haitang girl, this servant will write a letter to ask father and mother back home."
Tong'er couldn't help asking: "You can write?"
"I learned a little sneakily from the master in the village private school." Bai Xue laughed straightforwardly.
Tong'er was deeply impressed with Baixue. It should be known that there weren't manys servant girls in the Jiang residence that knew how to write. Her family's Miss was indeed a hero with an insight. This Bai Xue's appearance wasn't astonishing, but she had real ability, it was not wrong for her to be a first-class servant girl.
It was unexpected for Jiang Li that Bai Xue knew how to write. She immediately smiled and said to Baixue: "Then thank you so much."
The reason why she picked Baixue as her close-fitting servant girl, apart from her honest nature, the more important thing was precisely because Bai Xue came from Zao Hua village.
When she was Xue Fang Fei, she had a close-fitting servant girl called Haitang who also came from Zao Hua village. Out of Xue Fang Fei's four personal maids, two were beaten to death, and the remaining two people were let off from the residence furtively by Xue Fang Fei. One was called Du Juan, the other Haitang. There was nobody in Du Juan's house, she didn't know where she could be afterwards. However, Xue Fang Fei knew Haitang's whereabouts, her hometown was at Zao Hua village and she still had two younger brothers.
Shen Yurong didn't know Haitang's history, thus he was unlikely to check Zao Hua village. Moreover, Haitang was clever, cautious and quick-witted. She had thought back and forth and felt that Haitang would most likely return to Zao Hua village.
If she wanted to expose Shen Yurong and Princess Yong Ning's ugly faces, it was necessary to find a witness from that time. A pity that she was now unable to approach the Shen family. Even if she could get close to them, the people in the Shen family would probably not help her to testify.
But Haitang was not the same, Haitang had grown up together with her, they were close like sisters. If she wanted Haitang to come forward and act as a witness in Xue Fang Fei's incident, Haitang would definitely agree.
And so all of these, Jiang Li looked at the simple and honest girl in front of her, she needed to rely on Bai Xue who came from Zao Hua Village.
Footnotes:
1: Bai Xue means snow.
2: 1 mu of land = 667 square metre.